“He completes the work of the team as the perfect centre-forward, because there are times when the opposition press you and you have to go behind the line to find the ball,” Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia.

“In the last couple of games, Icardi has done that perfectly.”

Until that VAR decision for Seko Fofana’s handball at the 76th minute, the Nerazzurri had struggled to break Udinese down.

“When you miss some of the chances we did, and are going through a period that is not exactly great, we can become a bit too predictable. We did ok, but didn’t have the right level of intensity. The ball has to be flung towards the goal, not passed slowly to give time for the opposition defence to reorganise.

“Aside from the start of the second half, when we got a bit unbalanced in a bid to break the deadlock and send a signal this game had to be won, we otherwise controlled the match.

“We’ve lost the ball sometimes in banal fashion and that irritates our fans in the crowd. I saw four or five times we got to the by-line and didn’t find the quality final pass to really make it count.”

“Joao Mario is improving and has some very specific characteristics. The strength and problem is that he is always calm and plays every move at the same tempo. He can’t quite speed it up or slow it down depending on the circumstances.”